Interesting Times

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Two years ago next week President Biden told a news conference in Brussels, Belgium, that he would be "very fortunate" if he were to run against Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election.  Biden has long seen a rematch against Trump as being his surest way to stay in the White House for four more years, and he likes to pat himself on the back for being the only person to have ever beaten Trump in a political race.  (Unspoken is the fact that Trump has only been in two political races in his entire life, and he lost both of those substantially in the popular vote.)

But Joe thinks he can defeat Trump again - easier than he could the other Republican hopefuls - so he cheered on Trump toward the nomination.  God love Joe's blue-collar swagger, and God help us if he is wrong. 

Conversely, Donald Trump has also said that he is eager to have a rematch with Joe Biden.  Each candidate sees the other as being his weakest potential opponent.

Politico ran an article two days ago by Catherine Kim dealing with the topic of "double haters," or voters who do not like either of the two major parties' presumptive nominees - and their numbers are not insignificant.  Three polls - Marquette Law School, New York Times-Sienna College, and Morning Consult - all came up with the same number - 19 percent.  (That 19 percent is basically equally divided among Democrats and Republicans, and tends to lean slightly younger and more Hispanic.)

Roughly one in five Americans are dissatisfied with both Biden and Trump being on the national ballot. That sounds like prime fodder for third-party votes, a situation which could easily upend the election.

The two candidates each believe they have gotten lucky and drawn the weakest opposition, and a big chunk of the voting public seems to think they are both right.

Age, mental acuity, criminality.

We live in interesting times.